Special Issues

Suspended teens want meeting with state officals about the standardized test

Local News
A dozen Santa Fe High School students stood in front of the state Public
Education Department today, calling for a meeting with Public Education
Department Secretary Hanna Skandera over testing that they say goes too
far. ... More

On Location

NM Film Trails maps the state’s Tamalewood cred

Over the weekend, in a rush to make one last trip into the wilderness before the next fire starts (knock on wood), my friends and I headed out to the Chama River for a float trip. We left from Santa Fe and, throughout the drive, noticed little yellow road signs with black lettering that spelled “JANE.”

The signs mark active film sets—in this case, we figured, the lettering stood for Jane Got a Gun, the Western due out in 2014 featuring Natalie Portman as a sexy-but-badass frontierswoman. The signs frequently decorate Santa Fe, particularly in summer—“LM” for Longmire, the Western-themed TV crime drama, “ODD” when they were filming Odd Thomas (Willem Dafoe in a supernatural thriller-mystery—yes, you read that right), and so on.

Sure enough, as we pulled off Hwy. 84 and onto the dirt road that led to our destination, we saw the movie set. Anxious to get on the river, we didn’t stop. But it seems apt timing to mention the New Mexico Film Office’s new venture: NM Film Trails, an extensive map of past film sites around the state that allows curious locals and tourists to check out past (and likely future) real-life film locations.

Nick Maniatis, the director of the New Mexico Film Office, says his staff has been working on the idea for roughly a year. The end product: a glossy map brochure, as well as an online database of movie locations around the state.

Maniatis says the goal was to create something “for New Mexicans [but also] for everyone,” in turn helping generate tourism to the state’s lesser-known spots.

“Even if someone added a day to their trip, that would be a win,” he says.